Homo novus ((title in the works))
by Calen
Summary: Joxer heads to Rome to find out whether his dreams were just nightmares or something more. He gets entangled in a mess that he has no, nor does he want any control of…


Homo novus ((title in the works))  
  
A Xena Warrior Princess Fanfiction Story  
  
Author: Calen  
  
Calen2k@hotmail.com  
  
April 30, 2002  
  
Disclaimer: Once upon a time there was a guy. He wrote a story with characters and settings he didn't own, but he put a disclaimer on his story and that made it a little less illegal. Most of the characters in this story belong to Renpics and some other people, but not me.  
  
Subtext: Nope.  
  
Warnings: Language, violence.  
  
Rating: PG-13 for now.  
  
Season: s4 end. Beginning of s5.  
  
Summary: Joxer heads to Rome to find out whether his dreams were just nightmares or something more. He gets entangled in a mess that he has no, nor does he want any control of…  
  
Author's Notes: I've wanted to do an AU fic with Joxer and the events of the end of s4 for a while now, so here we go.  
  
  
  
Prologue:  
  
He walked along the wet muddy path, the dull surroundings only serving to add to his already somber mood. The sky was filled with dark clouds, the wind howling as it blew the long grass harshly. The few trees by the sides of the path looked old, like they were ready to tumble over. Rain pelted his face, but he kept up the pace, not wanting to stop or rest for fear the dreams would come again. He hoped they were just that, dreams, nightmares he thought, picking up the pace. He had only told Amarice, an Amazon that was a friend of Gabrielle's; what he had seen in the dreams. Which was why she was walking beside him in a similarly somber mood. She thought they might be visions. He could only hope that they weren't. Noting her travelling companion's pace quicken, she did the same to keep up with him.  
  
''We should be there soon,'' Amarice told him, receiving an answering nod in reply. Arriving near the city boundaries, she told Joxer she was going to see if she could find any information on where their friends might be.  
  
Taking note of his surroundings, Joxer watched people move about trying to get wherever they were going as quickly as possible. He caught sight of something that stirred uneasiness in him. 'You shouldn't be surprised,' he told himself. 'This is Rome, the birthplace of all this madness. It's more commonplace here than anywhere else in the empire.' The thoughts couldn't stop how he felt though. The cages were too small. Two people… slaves… to a cage, except for one. The man by himself looked like he might be from Chin. He remembered reading a description in one of Gabrielle's scro.....  
  
'Gabby,' he thought. 'I wish I could help them, but I have to find you.' Deciding that he could at least help a little, even if it was only in the way of food. Joxer walked towards the lone man's cage, pulling some bread from his pack. He put his hand through the bars. ''Here,'' he said.  
  
The man looked up at him and then looked around, obviously trying to see if anyone was watching. Turning his attention back to the one offering him bread, he nodded and took it. The man looked a little odd but his makeshift armour did nothing to take away the look of understanding and kindness he saw. ''Thank you.'' His only answer was a kind smile.  
  
''What's your name?'' he asked, hiding the bread within his thin robes.  
  
''Joxer... just... Joxer,'' Joxer answered.  
  
The guy had a faint withered smile on his face. ''Well, Joxer... just Joxer, tha...'' He was interrupted by a loud shout.  
  
''Get away from there!'' Joxer looked in the direction the loud exclamation had come from and saw a Centurion looking over at then. The guy shimmied backwards until he was pressed into the other side of his cage. Joxer also backed away and walked to where Amarice was now waiting. He wanted to help... help them all, but he couldn't afford to be captured.  
  
''Joxer! Where have you been? It doesn't matter - we have to go," Amarice told him, not waiting for his response. Following quickly behind her, he had a bad feeling in his gut.  
  
==================  
  
'No,' his mind screamed again. 'No.' It was like a never-ending mantra running through his mind. They were dead, Xena, Gabby. His beautiful Gabby… She looked so serene, peaceful...dead. A sob hitched in his throat as he pulled a blanket from his pack and placed it gently over Gabrielle's barely clad body, raising the edges to her chin.  
  
''She's so cold,'' he whispered to himself. Hearing Amarice talking to Eli, he heard the angry tone in her voice. She was right. The way of peace, he thought, bitterness beginning to spread through his mind. Turning his head back to Gabrielle, he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. Reaching into his pack again, he pulled out a scroll and quill and began to write. The words flowed from his heart straight to his fingers. He held nothing back. Everything he felt, everything he had ever wanted to tell her he wrote. Finishing up, he noticed damp spots on the scroll - his tears. Clenching his eyes shut, he rolled up the scroll and placed it under the blanket near the arm closest to him.  
  
Leaning back on his heels, Joxer realised that the talking had stopped. Opening his damp eyes, he looked over to where Amarice and Eli were now standing and focused his glare on the cause of all this. Deep down, he knew it wasn't Eli's fault. Gabby wasn't easily led. She made her own decisions, but he needed someone to blame.  
  
Pushing himself to his feet, Joxer stepped up to Eli, keeping his eyes on the prophet's. Eli took a step back as if expecting to be berated again. Sensing Amarice move around them to be beside her queen, Joxer paid her no heed. ''I may be a fool, a jester that they laughed at but I, I loved them,'' Joxer said, silencing Eli with a raised hand when he tried to talk. ''And I'd like to believe that they loved me.'' Turning his head, he put his index finger and thumb to his eyes, wiping the tears away before continuing.  
  
''To survive in this day and age means that suffering, blood, and death must thrive. And while men like Caesar live, it shall always be so. I may be a fool, but I understand that. Gabby understood that until you, YOU polluted her mind with this 'way of love'.'' He stepped up closer to Eli and saw tears running down the man's face. Joxer could not help but allow his own tears to fall. Raising his voice he all but shouted, ''Your way of love got them killed! It wasn't right for Gabrielle. As long as she was with Xena, how COULD it be?'' he sobbed. ''She would never leave Xena's side. They were family,'' his breath hitched.  
  
''My family - they're dead because of you.'' Joxer looked intensely at the man's face, saw the tears flowing freely just like his, saw the guilt, the pain, every emotion that he felt tearing him apart inside. He pushed down the urge to act out on his feelings of anger towards Eli. He needed to do something – anything. How could he stop the feelings, the anger - the hurt? They were just too much for him to handle.  
  
A million thoughts raced through his mind before he turned around and looked at Amarice. ''Bury them,'' he told her. Heading for the doorway, he said to himself, not caring if the others heard him, ''This fool wants some payback.'' 


End file.
